55 Bible Verses about Sacrifice

"It is not those who are well," said Jesus, when he heard this, "but the sick, who need a doctor. "But go and learn what this means, "It is mercy I desire, and not sacrifice; for I am come not to call just men, but sinners."

For the Law, being only a shadow of the good things to come, and not their very substance, its priests cannot with the same sacrifice which year after year they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered? Because the worshippers having been once cleansed, would have had no more consciousness of sin. But on the other hand, in these sacrifices sins are called to memory, year after year. read more.
For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. It is for this reason that the Christ, on coming into the world, declared. Sacrifice and offerings thou dost not desire, But a body didst thou prepare for me; In whole burnt offerings and sin offerings Thou hast taken no pleasure. Then I said, "I am come??n the roll of the book it is written of me??o do thy will, O God." First when it is said, Thou hast no longing for, thou takest no delight in Sacrifices and offerings, or whole burnt offerings and sin offerings, (offerings regularly made under the law), and then it is added, Lo, I come to do thy will, he does away with the first, in order that he may establish the second.

I have been crucified with Christ, so it is no longer I who am living, but it is Christ who is living in me; and the life I am now living in the flesh, I am living in faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me.

I entreat you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies to Him as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. This is your reasonable service of worship. And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

For the love of Christ overmasters me; because I thus judge that if One has died for all, then all have died; and that he died for all in order that the living may live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again for them.

I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is in itself unclean; but any food is "unclean" for one who considers it "unclean." If your brother is continually pained because of your food, you are not conducting yourself any longer in love. Do not, by what you eat, persist in destroying a man for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let what is right, so far as you are concerned, be evil spoken of. read more.
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Those who are slaving for Christ devotedly in these ways, are well pleasing to God and highly commended by man. So then let is eagerly pursue the things that make for peace and the upbuilding of each other. Do not, for the sake of food, be tearing down God's work. All food indeed is ceremonially clean, but a man is in the wrong if his food proves a stumbling-block. The right course is not to eat meat, nor to drink wine, nor to do anything through which your brother is made to stumble. Have you faith? Keep it to yourself as in the presence of God. He is a happy man who does not condemn himself in that which he approves. But he who has misgivings, and yet eats meat, is condemned already, because his action is not based on faith; and whatever is not based on faith is sin.

Now in regard to food which has been offered to idols, we are sure of course that "we all have knowledge." But knowledge puffs up, while love builds up. If a man thinks that he already has knowledge, he does not yet truly know as he ought to know; but if a man loves God, he is known by him. read more.
Now as to eating food that has been offered to idols, we know well that an idol has no real existence in the universe, and that there is no God but One. For though there be so-called "gods," celestial of terrestrial, as indeed there are gods many and lords many, yet for there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we for him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him. But that "knowledge" is not possessed by all; but some, accustomed until now to the idol, eat food as that which has actually been offered to an idol, and so their conscience, being still weak, is defiled. Now food does not bring us nearness to God. Neither if we eat do we gain any advantage, nor if we eat not, do we lose any. But see to it lest this right of yours become a stumbling-block to the weak. For if any one should see you, the possessor of "knowledge," reclining at table in an idol's temple, would not his conscience, if he were weak, be emboldened to eat things sacrificed to idols? So he is lost, this weak man, lost by your "knowledge." this brother for whom Christ died. In so sinning against your brothers, and in ever and again wounding their weak consciences, you are sinning against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat makes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, lest I make my brother to stumble.

So then, my beloved, continually flee from idolatry. I am speaking to men of sense; do you yourselves judge what I say. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a common participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a common participation in the body of Christ? read more.
Because we who are many are one bread, one body, for we all do share in the one loaf. Look at Israel according to the flesh; are not those who eat the sacrifices in communion with the altar? What then shall we say? that an offering to an idol is anything? or that an idol is really anything? On the contrary, what the heathen sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have communion with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and also the cup of demons; you cannot be partakers in the Lord's table and in the table of demons. What! would we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? "All things are lawful," you say? But not all things are expedient; "all things are lawful"; but not all build up. Let not each one be always seeking his own, but rather his neighbor's good. Eat anything that is for sale in the markets, asking no questions for conscience sake; for the earth and its fulness are the Lord's. If one who is not a believer invites you to his house, and you wish to go, eat everything that is set before you, without asking questions for conscience sake. But if any one tells you, "This food has been offered in sacrifice," do not eat it, for the sake of him who told you, and for your conscience sake??is conscience, not your own. "But," you may object, "why should my freedom be decided upon another's scruples of conscience? If I eat after giving thanks, why am I denounced for eating that for which I have given thanks?" Because whether you are eating or whether you are drinking, you are to do it all for the glory of God. Do not be a cause of stumbling either to Jews of to Gentiles, or to the church of God. For so I also try to please all men in every way, not by seeking my own good, but the good of the many, that they may be saved.

and so Jesus suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people by his own blood. Let us then go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have not here an abiding city, but we are earnestly seeking the city that is to be. read more.
In his name, then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of lips that confess his name. And forget not to be kind and liberal; for with that sort of sacrifice God is well pleased.

Just then up came one of the Scribes who had heard them arguing, and realized that Jesus had answered them admirably. "What commandment," he asked, "is the first of all?" Jesus replied. "The first is. 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.'" read more.
"The second is this, "Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. Other command greater than these there is none." "Admirably said, O Teacher," exclaimed the Scribe. "You have truthfully said that He is one, and that beside him there is none other, and to love him with all one's heart and with all one's understanding and with all one's might, and to love one's neighbor as oneself is far beyond all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices."

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said: "Behold, that is God's Lamb, who takes and bears away the sin of the world.

Then I beheld a Lamb standing as if slain in the midst of the throne and of the four Living Creatures, and in the midst of the Elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes (which are the seven Spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth). And he went, and now he has taken the book out of the right hand of Him who was seated on the throne. When he took the book, the four Living Creatures and the four and twenty Elders fell down before the Lamb. And each had a harp and a golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. read more.
And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy art thou to take the book And to open its seals; For thou wast slain and didst ransom for God Men out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation; Thou hast made them kings and priests unto our God, And they shall reign on earth." Then I looked and heard a voice of many angels encircling the throne and a voice of the Living Creatures and of the Elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, singing aloud, "Worthy is the Lamb who has been slain, To receive power and riches and wisdom And might and honor and glory and blessing." And I heard every created thing that is in heaven, or on earth, or beneath the earth, or on the sea, and all things that are in them, saying, "To him who sits on the throne, And to the Lamb, Be the blessing and the honor, And the glory and the power, Forever and ever!"

By this we learn to know love, because he laid down his life for us; so we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

For the Law, being only a shadow of the good things to come, and not their very substance, its priests cannot with the same sacrifice which year after year they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near.